Libya is the common denominator of two frightening news items. First, the capsizing of boats chartered by cynical smugglers to bring migrants to Europe. Second, the murder of at least 28 men, presented as Christian Ethiopians, by Islamic State militants. These tragedies are not unprecedented. The capsizing of migrant boats is recurrent. On Feb. 15, the Islamic State already claimed responsibility for murdering 21 Copt Egyptians.

Since the fall of Gaddafi in 2011, the situation in Libya has turned into chaos. The country has become the nerve center of human trafficking and the base for terrorist networks that are destabilizing North Africa and the Sahel while defying Europe. The Islamic State has a reason for staging its murders on the shores of the Mediterranean. If the European powers want to live up to their historic responsibilities, they cannot remain inert in the face of this barbarity.

The problem lies in the fact that the same European powers already intervened in Libya in 2011, using air strikes to prevent Gaddafi from violently crushing a popular revolt. Gaddafi fell, but the country's state structures were destroyed along with him. Hence the current confusion. A new intervention can only be viewed with great circumspection, because there is a real risk of further complicating the Libyan equation. But between the current inaction and a military invasion, there must be something that can be done to stabilize Libya.

Guillaume Goubert is editor-in-chief of La Croix.

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